LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LO]!^DO>". 23 



to the family of ApiocrinidcB, which family flourished in the 

 Oolite, and had been considered to be extinct. There is no 

 doubt that this startling discovery decided Carpenter and Wyville 

 Thomson to engage iu the investigation of the deeper parts of 

 the British seas. It was this discovery which led to the suppo- 

 sition of a continuance of the Cretaceous period into the present 

 fauna of the Deep Sea. In the depths of the sea, it was said, 

 where the physical conditions are simple and extremely slow in 

 changing, the terms of animal life will be likely to preserve their 

 characters through the course of ages, whilst the fauna of the 

 Littoral, subject to a variety of ever changing conditions, follows 

 a course of rapid evolution. 



While Sars, father and son, and the other men mentioned 

 worked chiefly in the deep waters close to the shore, the Nor- 

 wegian North Atlantic Expedition explored the more distant 

 parts westwards towards Iceland, in which a depth of 2000 fathoms 

 is reached. Some 25 or 30 of their zoological stations, at which 

 the dredge or trawl was used, fall into this area. 



The Swedish naturalists were during this period scarcely less 

 active in their native seas. Dr. Nauckhofl" explored in 1870, ia 

 the brig ' Nordenskjold,' the fauna of the Baltic, where, however, * 

 the soundings go beyond 100 fathoms in a few places only. 

 Dr. Bovallius and Dr. Theel dredged in the gun-boat ' Grunhild ' 

 all over the Skagerrack in from 100 to 400 fathoms, thus supple- 

 menting the work of their fellow-labourers and neighbours. 



2. The British Section. 



I shall refer to the influence exercised by Edward Forbes on 

 the advancement of marine Biology later on when we come to the 

 Mediterranean, in which he carried out his deep-sea researches. 

 Here it will suiflce to remind you that he moved the British 

 Association in 1839 to appoint a Committee for the investigation 

 of the British marine Flora and Fauna by means of tlie dredge ; a 

 Committee through which for many years after Forbes's death 

 much valuable work was done. No one utilized this Committee 

 with greater advantage to science than the late Mr. Grwyn 

 Jeff"reys, whose memory is still green with many Fellows of this 

 Society. He undertook his annual trip to Shetland chiefly with 

 the view of completing the malacological survey of the British 

 Islands, dredging within the littoral zone, but in later years 

 venturing now and then beyond the 100-fathoms line, which he 

 reached some 40 miles off St. Magnus Bay and north of Unst. 

 The practical experience which he had gained in these excursions 

 was of great service when he became associated with Carpenter 

 and AV^. Tliomson in. the subsequent expeditions of the ' Lightning' 

 and ' Porcupine.' 



The hrst of these expeditions was (in 1868) that of the ' Light- 

 ning,' * a surveying ship lent by the Admiralty for a short cruise 



* Preliminary Eeport iu Proc. Roy. Soc. 1868, pp. 168-200. 



